It can"t be beat."
Ed motioned Jack aside. "Wasn"t that the police boat?" he asked.
"Yes, and Cora and I gave them all the clues they wanted. None at all in other words. They"re after Tony."
"Oh! and Cora, is she all right?" Ed questioned further.
"Splendid. Did you hear the latest?"
"Which?" asked Ed, significantly.
"Laurel"s father is almost better. The hermit, you know."
"You don"t say! Can he testify?" asked Ed.
"He may be able to if they require it. But the queer part is it seems to have been the shock that awakened his brain. I have read of such cases."
Ed was silent, for the girls were returning. Hazel had her brown arms around Cora while Bess looked at Laurel as if she expected every moment her chum might evaporate. Walter towed on behind the little party.
"I must go down to the landing, Jack," Cora said. "I expect a registered letter, and it is most important that I get it at once."
Now this was the very thing that Jack did not want her to do--to get into the crowd of curious ones that would be sure to be congregated about the landing.
"Could I not fetch it? You don"t want to leave the girls when they have just come up," Jack interposed.
"I am afraid this time I will have to get my own mail," said Cora with a smile. "Ed can run me down and we will come straight back."
This was finally agreed upon, although Jack did not like the arrangements. He called Ed aside and warned him not to let Cora leave the boat, not to let her speak to anyone, and not to let any one intercept her. "You can tell about those lawyer fellows," he finished. "They might think it their legal duty to interview her, for they know she has been let into the hermit"s secret."
Ed readily promised all Jack said, punctuating his remarks with a display of arm muscle which meant that anyone would have to pa.s.s pretty close to it to reach Cora while she was in his company. Then they left.
Jack sat down on the ledge near the water. He was not given to the "glooms" but surely he had had more than his share of serious business lately. How it would end was his cause for anxiety. So he was pondering when Laurel touched his arm.
"Father would like to speak to you," she said in a faint voice. "He seems to think he knows you."
Jack jumped up suddenly. "He spoke to me very rationally last night," he said; "perhaps that is what he means."
He followed Laurel into the hut. The old man had gotten up and was as nicely washed and fixed as a sick person is usually when loving hands hover around.
"Good morning, sir," Jack said pleasantly, taking the seat beneath the opening in the boughs that served as a window.
"Good morning, good morning, and a really good morning it is," said the older man. "I wanted to speak with you. Laurel dear, is there not water to fetch?"
Laurel took the cue and hurried out, leaving Jack alone with the hermit.
"Young man," he began, "something has happened to clear my brain. A shock some fifteen years ago, if I have not lost all track of time, almost, if not altogether, deprived me of my reason." He paused and put his hand to his brown forehead, in a motion that seemed more a matter of habit than of necessity. "Then I came here, or he brought me here. I was all alone. Little Laurel must have been a baby, when one morning I found her at my side. Dear, sweet little cherub.
He told me since that her mother had died!"
Jack did not venture an interruption. It all seemed too sacred for the lips of strangers to break in upon.
"Then we lived here. That man--!" He clenched his fist and Jack feared the excitement might be bad for his weakened head.
"Don"t let us talk of him," Jack advised. "Let us consider what is best to do now."
"My brave boy!" and the hermit put his arm on Jack"s shoulder.
"That is always the mighty question for right; what is best to do now?"
A flush had stolen into his sunken cheeks, but Jack could see that it was not years, but trouble, that had marred his handsome face.
"He said I would be convicted--of that... crime!" The words seemed to burn his throat, for he put, his hand up as if to, choke further utterance.
"A crime you never committed," Jack ventured, without having the slightest knowledge of what it might mean to his listener.
"Can you prove it? Can you prove it!" gasped the man and for the moment Jack was frightened. He felt he was again in the presence of the mad hermit of Fern Island.
"Of course we can prove it. My sister has gone now for the absolute proof!" Jack was daring more and more each second. "But you spoke of Breslin. You said you knew him."
"I do! Where is he! Breslin always believed in me, and he could save me now," replied the man.
"Well, listen and try to be calm, or Laurel will not let me talk further to you," Jack cautioned. "Last night you mentioned the name of a wealthy banker, for whom my best friend works. This friend is a mechanical genius and he runs a racer boat for Brendon Breslin, the banker!"
"Where? Here? On these sh.o.r.es?" and the man was panting.
"Only a short distance off. But I tell you, Mr.--?"
"Starr," volunteered the man.
"Mr. Starr, if you will only get strong enough you can do a great deal for yourself and Laurel. The night that you fell a man was on this Island. Did you know Jim Peters?"
"Jim Peters!" repeated the hermit. "Yes, he was here the night Laurel went away with that nice young lady who looks like you."
Jack started at that. The night Laurel went away was the night Jim Peters had quarreled with Tony and been hurt.
"Did he come to the hunt?" asked Jack.
"No, but the other man did. Brentano and he quarreled, and he drove Jim Peters down to his boat. I saw them for I was wandering about wishing for Laurel, and I remember it all."
"If that man, Brentano, you call him, chased Peters into the boat did he get in with him?" Jack asked anxiously.
"Yes, I saw them shove off, but Peters was ugly and wanted to come back."
"Did he?"
"I had to hide then, as they might have injured me if they caught me. I did not see the boat go out or come back. I went to one of my many hiding places," finished the old man with evident effort.
"Well, Mr. Starr, you have relieved my mind greatly, and I hope I have not taxed your brain too strongly. But the fact is the detectives are trying to find out about those men and every bit of information helps. The police, you know, like to clear things up to suit themselves," Jack said.
At the word "police," the man winced. Jack noticed the change of manner, and at once turned the subject to that of the health of his listener. He urged him to get up enough strength to leave the island, for Laurel"s sake, as well as for his own.